Two Schools Of Thought About Computer Science

There are two schools of thought about teaching computer science. We might caricature the two views this way:

• The conservative view: Computer programs have become too large and complex to encompass in a human mind. Therefore, the job of computer science education is to teach people how to discipline their work in such a way that 500 mediocre programmers can join together and produce a program that correctly meets its specification.
  
  
• The radical view: Computer programs have become too large and complex to encompass in a human mind. Therefore, the job of computer science education is to teach people how to expand their minds so that the programs can fit, by learning to think in a vocabulary of larger, more powerful, more flexible ideas than the obvious ones. Each unit of programming thought must have a big payoff in the capabilities of the program.

Brian Harvey and Matthew Wright
“Simply Scheme: Introducing Computer Science”


Brian Harvey’s Home Page

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